What is the standard regimen for patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia?

Modern guidelines based on a large international consensus indicate that treatment of newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) requires distinguishing at presentation low-intermediate (<10 × 10(9)/L WBC) from high-risk (>10 × 10(9)/L WBC) disease. The concomitant use of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and anthracycline based chemotherapy, with inclusion of AraC in consolidation for hyperleucocytic patients, has remained the standard of care for the past two decades. The advent of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and results from a large randomized trial, have recently challenged the standard ATRA-chemotherapy approach suggesting that at least patients in the low-intermediate category may be cured without chemotherapy using the ATRA-ATO combination.